Normally I start off my reviews with a little snipet of the book, a snipet that speaks for the book. I cannot do that with Defy by Sara B. Larson. Defy is suppose to be a book about a young girl who's family has been killed and in order to save herself from the awful breeding houses (a nod to A Handmaiden's Tale) she must disguise herself as a boy, just like her twin brother Marcel. Her whole purpose for the past few years has been to hide, remain alive, and serve her kingdom.
Alexa/Alex is not this character, this is not the book it promises. Is it terrible, not really, it's just very all about girl figuring out that she has hormones... which is not really as adventurous or action packed as you might think. I think it is safe to say that if you are looking for the story promised of a bad ass girl fighter, just skip this book and pick something up like Eon by Alison Goodman, The Blood of Eden trilogy by Julie Kagawa, or The Lotus War series by Jay Kristoff. Now those are soem books with kick ass girls (some of which have to do the whole gender role switch). Do not pick up this book, unless you really loved Twilight because it was a love story, not because of the fantasy promise of Vampires, Werewolves, and wars (which had nothing to do with Twilight no matter how hard she wanted to try.
There was not enough world building, our strong main character is fickle at best and too entertained by half naked torsos than by the impending war and her duty, and unfortunately every supporitng character along with her Prince were flat. It felt as if the author was trying to be amazing and intertwine about 10 books she has read together to make this book. I am not saying it isn't possible to accomplish this; however, it would have been more valuable if she hadn't have tried to ring in so many different ideas into one book, or series. I did read the whole book, word for word, heart beat by heart beat, and I have no ill feelings about this debut author, I just think that perhaps this book was falsely advertised... in a bad way.
At the end I felt like this:
THANKS NETGALLEY, 2/5 stars
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